Doctor Who: Missing Patrick Troughton episodes could air on BBC4

The BBC has the right - and in some senior quarters the desire - to show the nine recently-discovered Patrick Troughton Doctor Who episodes on BBC television, RadioTimes.com understands.

The BBC has confirmed that it has the right to air both The Web of Fear and The Enemy of the World in the UK decades after they were first broadcast.  And if they do get aired they will almost certainly be shown on BBC4, senior sources have confirmed.

However RadioTimes.com understands that a decision would be made in conjunction with BBC Worldwide, which is masterminding their commercial release on iTunes where they were put on sale in October.

However senior sources have said that the BBC has not ruled out airing the episodes on free to air TV eventually, although no time frame has been decided on and no formal decision has been made.

If it does go ahead it would be likely to be some time after the DVD release, according to sources.

The missing story The Enemy of the World is now out on DVD. The Web of Fear, which has a missing episode, is due to be released on DVD next year but is available on iTunes.

When asked about BBC TV’s interests in airing the episodes, a senior BBC executive told RadioTimes.com that no decision had been made but that if BBC television were to obtain the rights they would almost certainly air on BBC4 and not on BBC2.

A Worldwide spokesman said that the “BBC has the rights to show them if they wanted to”.

The BBC could not confirm the nature of the deal with Phillip Morris, director of the Television International Enterprises Archive, who found the missing material or whether a TV broadcast would require more money paid to him.

Both parties have also refused to divulge whether more missing material has been found by Morris.

The prints, discovered in Nigeria, comprise two (almost) complete Patrick Troughton six-parters: The Enemy of the World (in which the Doctor has an evil double) and The Web of Fear (where the Yeti invade London via the Underground).

Given that episode 1 of The Web of Fear and episode 3 of The Enemy of the World have long existed in the BBC archive, the discovery meant that now all five remaining episodes of The Enemy of the World have been found.

However while four instalments for The Web of Fear were located but episode 3 is still missing.

The serials were originally transmitted consecutively over 12 weeks in the winter of 1967/68

 

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Jenna Coleman on BBC Breakfast

Jenna Coleman was interviewed on BBC Breakfast this morning (23rd December 2013). Here, she talks about the Christmas special, Matt's departure and Peter's arrival.

This year's special is an hour long and airs at 7.30pm

The Time of the Doctor release date and contents announced

This year’s Christmas special, The Time of Doctor will be released on DVD and Blu-ray in a boxset, alongside the Eleventh Doctor’s other festive adventures.

Starring Matt Smith, The Time of the Doctor and the Eleventh Doctor Christmas Specials, will feature for the first time in one box A Christmas Carol, The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe and The Snowmen, as well as 2013’s Christmas episode, featuring Matt Smith’s departure from the role.

Contents

The Time of the Doctor (2013) starring Matt Smith and Jenna Coleman.

  
The Snowmen (2012) starring Matt Smith, Jenna Coleman and Richard E. Grant.

 The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe (2011) starring Matt Smith and Claire Skinner.

 A Christmas Carol (2010) starring Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill, Michael Gambon and Katherine Jenkins.

Extras

The release is also packed full of extra content from The Time of the Doctor including:

• Behind the Scenes of The Time of the Doctor (12 minutes)
• Farewell to Matt Smith (44 minutes)
• Tales from the TARDIS (44 minutes)

Release Dates

The Time of the Doctor and the Eleventh Doctor Christmas Specials will be released on 20 January 2014 in Region 2 and is available to pre-order now on DVD and Blu-ray.

 Price: £17.49

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Eighth Doctor And Sarah Jane added to Doctor Who: Legacy

 Developers for Doctor Who puzzle app Legacy have announced that Eighth Doctor Paul McGann, and Sarah Jane Smith (played by Elisabeth Sladen) will be added to the game shortly.

Doctor Who: Legacy is available now for free on Google Play and iTunes

Up first is Sarah Jane Smith, who will be released on Sunday 22 December (around 10am GMT). Users will require a promo code to unlock the companion character, which will be released on the Doctor Who Legacy Facebook page, as part of their Advent Calendar.

  

The Eighth Doctor will follow on Monday 23 December. A guaranteed drop - as with previous Doctors - Paul McGann’s Doctor will be found upon completion of the Paradox of the Whispermen level. Excitingly, the artwork for the Eighth Doctor features him in his The Night of the Doctor costume, complete with boots, scarf and shorter hair.

 

 

This release news comes hot on the heels of their recent addition of the Sixth and Seventh Doctors as free characters.

Doctor Who: Legacy is a new free to play mobile action-RPG, where fans can play though 50 years of adventures in space and time. It is available now for free on Google Play and iTunes.

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Peter Capaldi as Cardinal Richelieu first picture

The first promotional photo of soon to be Twelfth Doctor Peter Capaldi in BBC One’s The Musketeers has been released.

The ten-part adventure drama series also stars Luke Pasqualino (Skins) as D’Artagnan, Santiago Cabrera (Merlin) as Aramis, Tom Burke (The Hour) as Athos and Howard Charles as Porthos.

Capaldi's character, Cardinal Richelieu, is described as "scheming, ruthless and pragmatic" and "the most powerful man in France".

The BBC's official introduction to the character reads: "In the eyes of the Musketeers, he is a villain, a power-hungry dictator whose ultimate aim is nothing less than complete control of France. But in his own eyes the Cardinal is bringing much needed order to an outlaw society. He knows the King’s weaknesses all too well and understands that someone must take on the burden of government in his place. But nevertheless in his own way the Cardinal is loyal to the crown. Dry and witty, capable of great charm, he is also calculating and mercilessly cruel in implementing his vision. Despite his cool exterior the Cardinal is a man of carefully hidden passions."

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Psycho Matt Smith

Having left Doctor Who, former Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith takes to the stage as Patrick Bateman in the musical adaption of Bret Easton Ellis' 1991 cult novel American Psycho. (see previous post)

He will play the Wall Street yuppie with a penchant for both designer clothing and brutal decapitation; whose sadistic tendencies become ever more uncontrollable as he acts out his narcissistic life in consumer-obsessed '80s New York. With a book by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, and, music and lyrics from Tony Award-winner Duncan Sheik, American Psycho will make its bloody opening at the Almeida Theatre.

The author of American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis felt that there was no need for a film adaptation back in 1999.

'American Psycho was a book I didn’t think needed to be turned into a movie,' Ellis said in 2010. 'It was conceived as a novel, as a literary work with a very unreliable narrator at the centre of it and the medium of film demands answers. I don’t think American Psycho is particularly more interesting if you knew that he did it or think that it all happens in his head. I think the answer to that question makes the book infinitely less interesting.'

However, with this new West End take on his horror satire of a capitalist world, Ellis was more than happy with the casting.

  

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Capaldi: "I'm Too Young for The Doctor"

At the Sky Women in Film & Television Awards on Friday, Steven Moffat and Peter Capaldi were interviewed by the Press Association on his new role as the Time Lord.

Steven Moffat stated "The Doctor’s thousands of years old, they've never been able to find an actor old enough to play him!"

Peter Capaldi jokingly agreed, “I'm 1,995 years too young for the part, really. So I think the Doctor's going to be quite happy to look his age at last!”

Happy Birthday Waris & New Xmas Trailer

I've been a tad ill this past week but here is where I catch up.

Firstly, a happy birthday to Waris Hussein who turned 75 on Monday. Waris was of course the director of the pilot episode of Doctor Who : An Unearthly Child back in 1963.

 

Waris Hussein was born on 9 December 1938 in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. He moved to London with his parents in 1947. He attended Cambridge and worked as a trainee at the BBC, where his mother, Attia Hussein, was a newsreader and dramatic star. He became the first Asian BBC Drama director. According to Waris, he had to put up with a lot of "innuendo" and gossip about how he got to do what he was doing. He could feel himself being stared at and it made him determined not to fail.

In 1963, he became director of a new programme called Doctor Who along with Verity Lambert who produced it, and the concept of Sydney Newman. Waris moved on the following year to direct The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling in 1964. A list of his credits can be found here. 

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 The Time Of The Doctor

The BBC have released a new trailer for this year's Christmas special and Matt Smith's final outing as The Doctor - The Time Of The Doctor. There is a new rhyme to go along with it:

 "And now it's time for one last bow
Like all your other selves
Eleven's hour's over now
The clock is striking twelves"

 

Happy Birthday Wendy

Wendy Padbury, born 7 December 1947 in Warwickshire, England, played companion Zoe Heriot from The Wheel in Space to The War Games and again in The Five Doctors.

Happy 66th Birthday Wendy

Padbury came to prominence as an actor in 1966, when she joined the cast of the long-running ATV soap opera Crossroads. She played the role of Stephanie "Stevie" Harris, foster daughter to the show's main character, Meg Mortimer (Noele Gordon). 

She was cast as the Second Doctor's new companion, Zoe Heriot, in Doctor Who in 1968. She became very close to her co-stars Frazer Hines and Patrick Troughton. Padbury tells many fond stories about the practical jokes they played on each other during rehearsals; perhaps the most famous tale she told about this was when, in rehearsal, she fell asleep. As she was wearing a kilt, Patrick Troughton undid the clasp and then woke her up. Startled, she leaped up and the kilt fell off. In those days, the rehearsals for Doctor Who were held in a Church hall - the moment Wendy leaped up and screamed was the exact moment the Vicar walked into the hall. Wendy now says, very fondly of Patrick Troughton, that he had deliberately timed it so! 

Her connection with Doctor Who, after she left the programme (at the same time as Hines and Troughton) was not quite over. She appeared in Doctor Who and the Daleks in Seven Keys to Doomsday (1974), a stage play at the Adelphi Theatre London based on the television series, in which she played a companion named Jenny, opposite Trevor Martin as the Doctor. She made a cameo appearance, again opposite Hines and Troughton in Doctor Who's twentieth anniversary story, The Five Doctors. She is now retired and lives in France.

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On this day : End of an era

24 years ago today, the original series of Doctor Who came to an end with the final story 'Survival' with Sylvester McCoy as the seventh incarnation of the Doctor and Sophie Aldred as his teenage companion Dorothy 'Ace' McShane. It also had a cameo by the popular 1980's comedy duo Gareth Hale and Norman Pace.

Survival was the fourth and final story of Season 26 of Doctor Who. As such it was the final story to be broadcast, although not produced, of the classic series. The serial aired on Wednesday 22nd November 1989 and ended 3 weeks later on Wednesday 6th December 1989. Each episode were 25 minutes, and hard to believe by today's standard that was all we got back then at the end. 

Interestingly, it is the last canonical televised adventure to feature the TARDIS prop designed by Tom Yardley-Jones's and commissioned by John Nathan-Turner. It made it's first appearance in The Leisure Hive and remained in use for the whole of his time as producer. It had a final outing in the 1993 Children In Need special  Dimensions in Time before being retired. 

Synopsis:

The Doctor brings Ace back to her home town of Perivale. Her old friends are being kidnapped by a race of alien hunters called the Cheetah People, who were shown the way to Earth by the Doctor's old enemy the Master (Anthony Ainsley).

 

Anthony Ainsley (20 August 1932 - 3 May 2004)

 

 One of the Cheetah people

Before broadcast, Sylvester McCoy was asked to come back in and record the outgoing dialogue which is heard as The Doctor and Ace walk back to the TARDIS. 

  "There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, and the sea's asleep, and the rivers dream; people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, and somewhere else the tea's getting cold. Come on, Ace. We've got work to do"

DVD is currently £6.95 on Amazon

Doctor Who - Take On Me

Stunning original animation by Richard Swarbrick... although it does have a slight resemblance to a certain 80's A-Ha video.

His Final Life - Time's Up for the Eleventh

January 2014 issue of Doctor Who magazine Issue 468. Nice by-line. Available in shops 12 December 2013 Price £5.99

The Eighth / War Doctor Regeneration 5" Figure

The ‘Other Doctor’ is the Doctor’s dark chapter, an _hitherto unknown incarnation whose existence he has spent centuries repressing, a secret he wants no one to know of. He is a relic of the past, part of the great Time War, when he spent centuries fighting alongside his fellow Time Lords against the Daleks and made the final decision to end it with a desperate act that cost that incarnation the right to use the name “Doctor”. 

This haunted and battle-worn Other Doctor is finally forgiven after helping find a new solution to end the war, giving the Eleventh Doctor a new purpose as he heads into further adventures.

Contents:
The Other Doctor Action Figure.
The Other Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver Accessory.
The Moment Accessory.
The Eighth Doctor alternate head

Price: £14.99
Available from 28th February 2014
Forbidden Planet 

There is an issue I have with this release is, the (Ninth) War Doctor never wore the same outfit as worn by Paul McGann as the Eighth. If anything, the changeable head should be that of Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor. However, it is is fantastic that McGann is being recognised with this release. We just need an updated Eighth Doctor figures - the Big Finish Dark Eyes and The Night Of The Doctor ones. Maybe we will get them (?)

Paul McGann: the Surprise Interview

 

The BBC have released an interview with Paul McGann taking about returning to the role of The Doctor in The Night of the Doctor.

Time Of The Doctor Promo Images

Steven Moffat on what's next for the Doctor

In an interview with Digital Spy,  Steven Moffat has revealed that the Doctor's search for Gallifrey "might take him a while".

 Why did you decide to bring back Gallifrey?

 "It was about a year ago, I remember thinking, 'What occasion in the Doctor's life is the most important?' - well, it's the day he blew up Gallifrey. Then I tried to imagine what writing that scene would be like and I thought, 'There's kids on Gallifrey and he's going to push the button? He wouldn't!' I don't care what's at stake, he's not going to do it. So that was the story - of course he never did that, he couldn't. He's the Doctor - he's the man who doesn't do that. He's defined by the fact that he doesn't do that, whatever the cost, he will find another way. So it had to be the story of what really happened, that he's forgotten. Of course he didn't - he's the Doctor ! He doesn't do things like that! 

How will the search for Gallifrey figure into future Doctor Who?

"The Doctor has the possibility of going home – he can find Gallifrey – but it might take him a while, who knows? And who knows what he’ll do when he gets there? Get bored and run away again, I would think! But he has a mission statement."

 "It was fascinating when Doctor Who first came back that he was this war survivor dealing with guilt and rage – that was his story. Of course, he slowly gets over that and then there’s a danger that he just becomes about… farting about a bit, which starts to take some of the baseline out of the show somehow. So we’ve given him something to pitch for."

He also hinted at how the new story arc will develop: "It’s not like we’ll spend every episode saying, ‘I nearly found it!’ – we absolutely will not do that – but it gives him somewhere to go. The Doctor doesn’t know he’s a character in a television show – he doesn’t know he’s having adventures for our entertainment – he’s got to have something to do and that will be the thing he does."

Series 35 begins filming in January 2014 and is expected to start airing on BBC One in the Autumn of 2014.

Christmas Special time revealed

The BBC have revealed that the Christmas special The Time Of The Doctor will be shown at 7.30pm and will be an hour long.

The Eleventh on Watch over Christmas

UK satalite channel Watch (SKY 109 & Virgin 124) is to dedicate a day to the Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith following his finale The Day Of The Doctor which airs on BBC One on Christmas day, two days later on Friday, 27th December 2013.

They kick off with:

 'The Eleventh Hour' at 7.20am

 'The Time of Angels' at 8.45am.

 'The Pandorica Opens' at 10.45am

 'The Wedding of River Song' at 3.45pm.

 'The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe' at 4.45pm.

Steven Moffat on Capaldi: "It's time for the old beast to snarl"

Doctor Who's Steven Moffat has described Peter Capaldi's take on the Time Lord as an "old beast", and that Peter "will give us a whole new version of  the Doctor."

 

"We've got used to two brilliant iterations of the younger, more popular Doctor and they have both been superlative," Moffat said, "But now it's time for the old beast to snarl at you for a bit! Sometimes you see that a bit in Matt Smith's Doctor - he will remind the people around him, 'I'm not really like this' - but I think Peter's Doctor will make that even clearer."